


The Hylian

by Lady_Arrowwood, RadiantSeraphina (Lady_Arrowwood)



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Fluff, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 21:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2285610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Arrowwood/pseuds/Lady_Arrowwood, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Arrowwood/pseuds/RadiantSeraphina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The wolf is now a Hylian, and Midna doesn't like it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hylian

The Hylian had spent weeks communicating with growls, whines, and bared teeth. Sometimes, he tried to buck her, when she irritated him, and Midna responded by yanking on his fur. Then, there were other times, like when it was cold, and the wolf’s gaze seemed imploring, as he curled around Midna’s shivering form. The first time he tried that, she unleashed a bolt of magic at him. He leapt back, and it missed him by more than four feet. Midna hadn’t really wanted to hit him. “No, bad boy,” she said.

 

He growled at her— _I’m not your dog_ , and Midna forced a smirk. “What? You think you have to comfort me? I’m fine. Thank you very much.”

 

The wolf cocked his head to one side and settled down on his paws. _You know you’re being ridiculous, right?_

Of course, she knew. It was freezing, she was shivering, and a large, furry creature was offering to snuggle up against her. “I don’t need you,” she said flatly. “Besides, you smell terrible.”

 

The wolf rolled his eyes and retreated, curling up at the base of a tree. Midna spent the night, drifting in and out of sleep; she woke shivering again and again. Finally, she woke, and the wolf was there, dancing on his paws and tentatively wagging at her. “I don’t like you,” she said.

 

It wasn’t quite true, and she really cold. Midna sighed. “Alright, I’m cold. Why are you just standing there, stupid?”

 

If the wolf was bothered by her insults, he gave no indication. He curled around her, and Midna rested her cheek against the wolf’s warm, coarse fur. It was much warmer, and she slept much better after that. He couldn’t do that anymore; he wasn’t soft and furry anymore. And Midna wasn’t sure she liked that.

 

The first time she heard him speak _in Hylian_ , with _his_ voice, she’d simply stared. It wasn’t that the Hylian’s voice was _unpleasant_ , but it was deeper, incapable of the haunting howls he could make as a wolf. He had an accent, too, and lilted his vowels and broke his c’s too hard. An _Ordonian_ accent; she was certain. He spoke little and always in a soft, gentle cadence. It was the sort of voice that said _you can trust me_. By all means, it was a _nice_ voice, and Midna hated it.

 

She hated that he got into conversations and was too polite to leave them, before they were finished. She hated that he had to stop and talk to _everyone_. She hated that he made those horribly unsubtle battlecries. Apparently, stealth was wasted on the _Hylian_.

 

And of course, he looked different. He wasn’t _bad_ to look at, but she still didn’t like it. Midna couldn’t put her finger precisely on why. After trying to decide whether it was his eyes— _no, those were actually nice_ , his face— _really kind of pretty, if she looked at him from the right angle_ , or the brown-blond hair— _not as pretty as fur but not an inherently bad thing_ , she decided it was the clothes. They felt wrong, like they’d been woven with magic, and it made little knife-pricks along Midna’s skin. The clothes also didn’t keep him as warm and dry as the fur, so when a thunderstorm broke out, he was soaked, even though he’d managed to find a shallow cave to take shelter in.

 

He tried very stoically to hide when he started shivering and set about trying to build a fire. He might’ve had more luck, if there had been more warning before the storm hit, and if he’d had time to collect dry wood. He might have done better, too, if he hadn’t been sopping wet and if his hands hadn’t been shaking too badly to hold the flint steady. Granted, he could’ve saved himself a lot of trouble, if he’d still had lantern oil. In reality, he’d only taken a minute or so, but his pathetic attempts seemed to take _forever_. “Oh, here!” Midna snapped, drifting from his shadow.

 

She created a ball of crackling energy between her hands and released it on the feeble pile of wood. It burst into cheerful flames almost immediately. Midna mentally sorted through the half-dozen snarky comments she’d thought of and looked at his face. His hair was shades darker and plastered to his forehead, there were trails from raindrops down his cheeks, and he grinned brightly at her. It was really his eyes that got to her, though. Wide, delighted, and impossibly blue. Blue like Twili skin and magic and robes. “Don’t think this means I _like_ you, Link,” Midna said, breaking the sounds of his name with a sharp click, just like he did.

 

The Hylian didn’t seem to notice that she was mocking his accent. He raised an eyebrow and leaned forward. “You know my name?” he asked, sounding amused, startled, and very _happy_ about the revelation.

 

“Obviously,” she said, with a dismissive wave.

 

“You never use it,” he said, by way of explanation.

 

“Why should I? You’re my servant. I can call you whatever I want, Mr. _Hero_ ,” she answered, with a harsh laugh.

 

He said nothing and instead began unbuckling the straps on his bracers. “You’re angry at me,” he said. “Aren’t you?”

 

He didn’t look at Midna, and the imp scowled. “Oh, please, I don’t care enough about you to be _angry_ ,” Midna stated.

 

“No? You’ve been acting odd,” he answered.

 

Link lifted his tunic and looked at the mail beneath, as if contemplating whether it was worth the whole awkward process of trying to remove it. “I haven’t been,” Midna retorted.

 

“You have been,” he said. “You’ve been quieter, since we met the Light Spirit.”

 

When he looked at Midna, his eyes had a sort of dreamy look. _Yeah, your Light Spirit isn’t so wonderful,_ she thought.

 

Link smiled faintly. “Sorry, Princess,” he said.

 

Midna flinched. “ _Princess_? Why are you calling me that?” she asked.

 

Link shrugged. “If you’re going to call me _Mr. Important Hero_ and _Wolf-boy_ , I think _Princess_ is fair enough, though you don’t act much like a princess,” he adds, as an after-thought.

 

Midna inwardly bristled. “You mean I don’t act like the pampered Princess Zelda?” she retorted.

 

“No, I don’t mean it like that. Rusl used to tell the children stories,” Link said. “He would tell us about this spirit, in the woods. It was a trickster spirit; it liked to cause mischief. Of course, being a spirit, its idea of mischief was more harmful than ours was. It would make a weary traveler lose his way and walk off cliffs. You remind me of that.”

 

Midna felt an uncomfortable twinge in her stomach. “What?” she asked. “You think I’m going to make you walk off a cliff?”

 

“Sometimes,” Link answered wryly.

 

“As appealing as the idea is,” Midna said, “I need you.”

 

At that, Link raised an eyebrow. “I don’t _want_ to need you,” Midna added, “So don’t think you actually _mean_ anything. Understand?”

 

Link bowed playfully, water dripping from his hair. “Of course, Your Highness,” he said.

 

Then, he shook his hair out, and Midna retreated, to avoid the water droplets. “Don’t do that! I swear you act just like a dog sometimes!”

 

He grinned at her, with bright eyes. _I do, and what are you going to do about it?_

Midna rolled her eyes, making a bigger show of being irritated than she really was. In truth, a wave of relief washed over her. Maybe he looked and sounded different, but he was still her wolf, still the Sacred Beast. Midna still didn’t know precisely how she felt about Link. He was a means to an end; she tried to tell herself. She wouldn’t like him. She _didn’t_ like him, even a little bit. Well, maybe she liked him a _little_. He was—well, the wolf was tolerable, and maybe the Hylian wasn’t so bad either.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little one-shot with Midna/Link bonding. Reviews are appreciated and reads, also.


End file.
